In the past, fiber optics have been used to transmit light or information. Bundles of fiber optics have been used to transmit analog information (pictures). However, to date, fiber optic bundles have not been used to represent lenses, mainly because lenses are much more effective at focusing light.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a fiber optic variable focus lens that can be used for laser surgery where one focus setting is used by the surgeon to observe within the human body and a second focus setting is used to focus laser light, also transmitted along fibers, on a particular spot for cutting and/or burning.
Another object of this invention is to provide second lens application that involves military laser optics in which adaptive optics are provided to overcome laser transmission problems through the atmosphere.
Still another object of this invention is to provide fiber optics variable lens that does not require that the ends of the fibers fit a prescribed regular curve, but have individual fibers that can have their end-point longitudinally displaced to provide corrections to a laser aperture wave front.
Other objects and advantages of this invention will be obvious to those skilled in this art.